Tag Archives: focus

With shorter days and longer nights Fall allows for more family fun in the evening. With the use of a flashlight and a bit of imagination your Little Pnutcan bring Halloween to life right in your home!

What You Will Need:

Old

Craft sticks

Glue

Black construction paper

Pencils

Scissors

Halloween shaped cookie cutters (optional)

Flashlight

Assemble Your Puppets

Using the cookie cutters trace Halloween shapes onto black construction paper. We used a bat, ghost and pumpkin but you can use whatever you might like. If you don’t have cookie cutters not to worry, just draw your shapes of choice by hand. Or,if your Little Pnut is able, it might be fun to have them draw the shapes. Next cut out the shapes. If you’d like, also c

Get Ready

While your shadow puppets are drying you and your Little Pnutcan gather up a flashlight and scout out a nice empty spot on a wall in the house (preferably in a dark or dimly lit room) for some spooky shadow puppet play. You might even want to round up a couple of fun Halloween stories.

Imagine & Play

Once your shadow puppets are dry let the fun begin.Aim your flashlight at the wall and have your Little Pnut hold the puppets in front of it until you see the shadows on the wall. Now, let your Little Pnuts’ imagination take over. We used our Spooky Shadow Puppets to act out Halloween stories (like Five Little Pumpkins) or you (and your Little Pnutsof course) can use your imagination and make up your own fun (or spooky) stories. We had a super fun bat & ghost race at our house!

Happy Playing!

Developmental Milestones:

This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for your Little Pnuts:

Colored pasta is a fantastic medium for a whole host of activities. Even coloring the pasta can be loads of fun for your Little Pnut so be sure to let them take part in the process.

What You Will Need:

Dry pasta in as many shapes or sizes as you want

Liquid water colors or food coloring

Hand sanitizer

Plastic zip lock style bags

Trays, cookies sheets or plates for drying

Paper towels

Choose Your Pasta

There are lots of shapes and sizes to choose from. We recently colored these little pasta wheels and having been using them in all sorts of ways.

Color Your Pasta

There are few different ways you can color pasta. We love the vibrant colors that using liquid water colors produces so more often than not that’s what we choose. To color the pasta your desired amount of pasta in a plastic zip lock style bag (we usually start with a cup or two for each color). Then add a few squirts of liquid water-color and shake until it’s the pasta is thoroughly coated. Your Little Pnut will love the job of shaking the bag, of that I am sure! If the color isn’t vibrant enough add a little more liquid water-color. Better to start with just a little at a time and add more if necessary as too much wet will begin to make the pasta sticky.

If you don’t have liquid water color you can color your pasta using a few pumps of hand sanitizer and a few squirts food coloring. We prefer gel food coloring because it tends to yield more vibrant results.

Dry Your Pasta

This step is important! Line cookie sheets or other trays with paper towels. Spread your freshly colored pasta out separating any pieces that might be stuck together and leave it to dry. We usually let ours dry overnight before handling it but a few hours should do the trick.

Play, Explore & Create

The possibilities are almost endless. You can use your pasta as sensory bin filler. It’s great for color sorting. It can be used for art work in various ways. Our Little Pnuts like gluing pasta shapes on paper to make pictures or collages. It can be strung on cord for jewelry.

Happy Playing!

Developmental Milestones:

This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for your Little Pnuts:

It’s the perfect weather for outdoor water play. Stay cool in the hot summer sun while introducing your Little Pnuts to the joy of fishing. A great game of strategy while encouraging concentration and focus. Perfect for a play date or for individual play, Fishing for Ping Pong Balls, will get your Little Pnuts excited about splashing around!

What You Will Need

Ping Pong Balls (as many or as few as you like)

Something to fish with like a butterfly or bug net or a kitchen strainer with a handle or even slotted spoon would work.

A body of water. Think kiddie pool, bathtub, water table or large plastic container.

Set Up

Fill your designated container with water and drop in a few ping pong balls. We found that the ‘more the merrier’ in respect to the ping pong balls was especially true for this activity. Give your Little Pnuthis fishing gear of choice. We used a kiddie sized butterfly net but a kitchen strainer with a handle works great too.

Let Them Fish!

See how many ping pong balls they can catch. Have them count them with you. If your Little Pnut is capable, challenge them to catch a particular number of ping pong balls. If you happen to have different colors of ping pong balls have them catch balls of a certain color. Ours were all white so we focused on making this a counting activity. For the littlest of Little Pnuts it’s great hand-eye coordination just for them to catch the ping pong balls and throw them back in the water.

Happy Playing!

Developmental Milestones:

This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for yourLittle Pnuts:

What a better way to celebrate Earth Day, everyday, than by creating an activity with recyclables with your Little Pnut? Don’t toss those cardboard boxes to the curb…save them up and create some Giant Duct Tape Building Blocks instead!

What You Will Need

A variety of sturdy cardboard boxes in different sizes. Diaper boxes work great for this activity as do Little Pnut Special Delivery Boxes.

Several rolls of duct tape (we used a few different primary colors)

Creating the Blocks

To create your blocks, simply wrap each cardboard box tightly and evenly with duct tape. The duct tape adds enough stability so that if your boxes were sturdy to begin with, younger Little Pnuts can actually climb on them!

Play

These fun, mega-sized blocks have infinite possibilities. Younger Little Pnuts will enjoy exploring the physical properties of the blocks by pushing, climbing, stacking, and sitting on them. Older Little Pnuts can add to the fun by building towers and using the blocks for imaginative play. Build some walls and drape a blanket across the top for a totally awesome fort! If you’ve used different colors, engage your Little Pnut in some fun color learning activities with the blocks. Building with blocks of any size is an excellent early math activity as well.

Developmental Milestones:

This activities focuses on the following Developmental Milestones for yourLittle Pnuts: